suggestions for hot water

[JPC]

Hi folks

After some suggestions please

I look after the plumbing of a local hairdressers in leicester.

They have no gas mains to the building.

They hae had hot water from a 1800 ? (therabouts) tall open vented cylinder fed from 3 side immersion heaters.

They are now busier and are using the water rather quickly and running out at peak times.

Any thoughts/ideas

my innitial thought was to put a second hwc next to it..plumb cold feed into one and hot out to the bottom of the next one (so no stagnant water)??

what we reckon ?

cheers

 

[Boilerman2]

How about Unvented Multipoint heaters installed at the point of use, they will fill up a sink, and reheat in about 5 mins rated at about 2.5Kw each

 

[muggles]

OK first things first...have you checked all three immersion heaters are working, and if they are, are they working all of the time? You may find that one or even two of them are running on some form of off-peak electricity meter, in which case heat recovery times will be much reduced. Also check they're all 3kW, it may be a simple case of upgrading them if they're lower-powered ones.

I suppose you could have one cylinder running into another, but it's not really standard practise. What you should do is (after increasing the size of the CWSC) take a 28mm or even 35mm supply off the CWSC, fit a reducing tee at the bottom to split off and feed the two cylinders, then re-combine at the hot water connections on top, making sure of course that both cylinders have effective use of the combined open vent. Both cylinders really need to be identical to do this.

Is there any space anywhere for LPG bottles? If so you could install an LPG-fired water heater, which would give all the hot water anyone could ever need.

Failing that, if it really does need to be electric, then you have two options beyond a second hot water cylinder. The first is to use the existing cylinder cupboard to house a new high-power multipoint water heater. The second is to localise the hot water supplies by fitting under-sink single-point instantaneous water heaters, such as a 9kw Santon Power Pack for example. If there are a lot of outlets, however, you may find that this requires some fairly major electrical work.

 

[muggles]

How about Unvented Multipoint heaters installed at the point of use, they will fill up a sink, and reheat in about 5 mins rated at about 2.5Kw each

D'oh, beat me to it, curse my lengthy posts! Having said that, the big issue as far as I see it is that hairdressers are given to using a lot of water to wash peoples' hair, so they might need more than a sinkful

 

[JPC]

hmm thx but the lay out of the premises wont make that an option. (or easy one atleast)

hoping for a solution near that can be plumbed into the existing hot water distribution pipe (upstairs in the back office)

 

[JPC]

thks muggles...

i have swapped the 3 immerson heaters more times than i care to remember...if i'm lucky its only the stat...when its the bottom immersion gone i swear and keep my mind on the money.

yes..all 3 are 3kw.

all 3 are on constatnt from 0600 till 2100.

they get a lot of use.

So a second cylinder of the same size and plumbed in a split way rather than in series...hmmm what if water somehow found a easier route via one of the tanks?

i still fancy cylinders in line...the first one (where the cold would enter from the cwsc) could be a smaller top immersion type one, as this would do most of the work (and easier to change with draining down)??

any more thoughts....

 

[Happyplumber]

Its not exactly rocket science now is it!!! with my wealth of experience I would not have to ask public forum how to sort this but then i am professional plumber

 

[JPC]

so what would you do?, professional plumber

 

[Happyplumber]

First of all i would charge you consultants fee because you dont know what you will do,its my pergotive to whom i provide free and hard earned advice

 

[simond]

If you are restricted to electric powered heating only, all you can do is increase the storage buffer volume or the power used eg: more heaters.

Instantaneous water heating at high flow rates will use shed loads of electricity - bear in mind a 48Kw gas boiler has a similar power output to a 200A electric heater. You are talking a big incomer if you are all electric, and the costs for upgrading your cable and meter are eyewatering.

PS: I haven't charged you for this call - or put any dodgy spelling in my post and called myself professional.

 

[JPC]

thx simond

so...any issues with cylinders in line...ie cold into first cylinder, with its hot connected to the bottom of the 2nd cylinder.

i ask cos its not something i have come across and not very standard

cheers

 

[westeleven]

First of all i would charge you consultants fee because you dont know what you will do,its my pergotive to whom i provide free and hard earned advice

Ooooh thats useful! I didn't realise that you offered a design service HP